Three Year Plan

The first step in developing a plan is to assess where you are. The key is to spend some time asking yourself what is working, and what needs improvement. What technology do you have in place in your organization? What technology skills does your staff have? Who does your organization rely on for technology support?

One part of assessment is taking a basic inventory of the computers and software in your organization. A hardware inventory worksheet can give you a sense of the overall quality, speed and memory of workstations in your organization. A software inventory worksheet can give you an overview of the software resources and how they are distributed on different computers. In the hardware inventory worksheet, you will want to write down the following items for each computer:
? User
? Brand
? Monitor type
? Processor type
? RAM
? Hard disk capacity
? Operating system
? Modem or network card (if any)
? CD or DVD drive
? Any additional equipment attached tothe computer

In the software inventory worksheet, you will want to mark down major software packages that you use, along with their version numbers.

There's more to an assessment than listing your hardware and software! The most important partof assessment is to ask yourself some questions about how well your systems are currently working. The worksheets below will give you an idea of the issues to look at in different areas of technology assessment.

? Technology Organizational Assessment Worksheet
? Hardware Assessment Worksheet
? Word Processing Software Assessment Worksheet
? Accounting Software Assessment Worksheet
? Local Area Network (LAN) Assessment Worksheet
? Internet Connectivity Assessment Worksheet
? New Website Development Worksheet
? Database Assessment Worksheet
? Training Assessment Worksheet
? Technology Support Staff Assessment Worksheet

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Maxwell provided a super answer that covers the main points of what you need to cover.

I think it is also important to obtain a copy of the company's three to five year plan and make sure that your plan is in synch with what the company thinks will happen.

You might also look at some long-range economic forecasts. While there are not very accurate, if you tie your plan to the assumptions in these, it will help make them realistic. They could also be contingency points in your plan. You could have a footnote that says something like: "if the projected economic boom hits in 2H04, as prediced by Acme Forecasts, then additional staffing may be required to support the increased level of business." Heady stuff, that!

Just yesterday I saw an article at cio.com: http://www.cio.com/archive/060102/donts.html.

Regs, Einius